1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a terminal used for electrically connecting an electrically conductive cable to a printed circuit board, and further to a connector including a plurality of the terminals.
2. Description of the Related Art
There have been suggested various connectors in dependence on purposes thereof for electrically connecting an electrically conductive cable to a contact terminal formed at a marginal area on a printed circuit board. Concerning the present invention, there have been suggested a connector used for a printed board in Japanese Utility Model Application Publication No. 1993-31139, and a card edge connector in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. H07 (1995)-142128, for instance.
FIG. 25 is an exploded perspective view of the connector 100 disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Application Publication No. 1993-31139, and FIG. 26 is a longitudinal cross-sectional view of the same.
A connection terminal 110 defining a part of the connector 100 includes vertical walls 102 formed at a front thereof with a slit 101, a resilient contact piece 120 formed at a bottom within the slit 101, and an electrical contact 121 formed at a ceiling within the slit 101 in facing relation with the resilient contact piece 120.
The connection terminal 110 is inserted into a terminal room 131 formed in a connector housing 130. A printed circuit board 140 is sandwiched between the resilient contact piece 120 of the connection terminal 110 and the electrical contact 121 in the terminal room 131 to thereby be electrically connected to the connection terminal 110.
FIG. 27 is an exploded perspective view of the card edge connector 200 disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. H07 (1995)-142128, and FIG. 28 is a cross-sectional view of the same to be connected to a housing.
The card edge connector 200 includes an outer housing 210 in the form of a box, and two inner housings 220 rotatably supported in the outer housing 210 in facing relation with each other.
The card edge connector 200 is inserted into a housing 230. A printed circuit board 240 is inserted into the housing 230 in a direction opposite to a direction in which the card edge connector 200 is inserted into the housing 230. The printed circuit board 240 is sandwiched between the terminals 221 arranged on inner walls of the inner housings 220 to thereby be electrically connected to the card edge connector 200.
In the connector 100 illustrated in FIGS. 25 and 26 and the card edge connector 200 illustrated in FIGS. 27 and 28, when a plurality of the connection terminals 110 and the terminals 221 are connected to the printed circuit board 140 or 240 along a marginal area thereof, a pitch between the adjacent connection terminals 110 and terminals 221 has to be designed longer than a width of the connection terminals 110 and the terminals 221, resulting in the difficulty to a need of a narrower pitch in the connectors.
Furthermore, though the card edge connector 200 can electrically connect circuits formed on upper and lower surfaces of the printed circuit board 240 to each other, the card edge connector 200 is designed not to include a board receiver. This results in shortage in reliability in the case that the card edge connector 200 is used in an automobile.
Namely, the connection terminal 110 of the connector 100 and the terminal 221 of the card edge connector 200 have to be designed to have a smaller width in order to be arranged at a narrower pitch. However, if they were designed to have a reduced pitch, they would have reduced rigidity, and hence, would have reduced force for sandwiching the printed circuit board 140 or 240 therebetween, with the result of deterioration in contact reliability. Thus, there is a limitation in reduction of a width of the connection terminal 110 and the terminal 221.